Thread: The Fist, the Bullet and the Fang

Second part and footnotes of the first chapter.


Handing Kuno the money had had given her as a down payment for the job, the mysterious woman pinched his neck, knocking him out instantly. Catching the tall kendo fighter as he fell she liberated him of the money she’d just returned to him.
"He was actually stupid enough to hire her," Ranma stated.
"And as always, she paid him back,” Ryoga added, “before robbing him blind.”
"Guys, if you know her that well why don’t you introduce her to us?" Nabiki (still unfazed) asked.
Ranma proceeded to present the group to the mysterious woman, then presented her: "Guys, this is Tatsumiya Mana, also known as Puu. You can see why(4)."
"Well, pleased to meet you..." Akane said, fighting with herself to not scream out of jealousy.
"Wait, Puu as in The Four of Asaba(5)?" Ukyo asked.
"The same one," Mana confirmed.
"Oh... And where are Fury, Sandokan and Merlin?"
Mana pointed Ranma(4) and Ryoga(4) and answered "Fury" and "Sandokan". It made sense, Fury was a stallion and the titular character of a western TV series, and Sandokan was a novel character nicknamed 'Tiger of Malaysia'. Following the scheme, 'Merlin' had to be a mage. Ukyo was about to ask when she saw Mana looking in Akane's eyes. Obviously trembling, the youngest Tendo daughter had even wet herself but was unable to break the dark skinned beauty’s gaze. Held captive by the woman’s powerful eyes it was as though Akane were little more then a rat staring into a king cobra’s eyes.
"You managed to not faint or kill yourself; well done." Mana declared. “Very few people can look Death in her eyes and survive wetting themselves. I don't personally know you very well so I hold my opinions about your engagement to Ranma; but I must say that you're very lucky to be his fiancé.” Turning to Ranma and Ryoga she smiled, “Just like the old days."
Ranma and Ryoga accepted with a little satisfied squeal and tailed her, when Kuno reappeared holding a real katana.
"Fear not, fair maiden, I shall now slay the vile sorcerer that ensnared your will with the ones of the pure Akane and the lovely Pigtailed Girl!" he declared.
Mana looked at Ranma while pointing at Kuno.
"In my letters I downplayed his recovering abilities and idiocy," Ranma shrugged.
"Thou shalt not belittle my abilities!" Kuno declared. "Experience Heaven Punishment!"
KER-POW!
In the middle of the swing, Kuno's katana was broken by Mana Desert Eagle's round. The broken blade fled away, shaving Kuno's head.
"I don't know how you did this, but thou shall now die!" Unfazed, Kuno declared producing another katana. "My technique is far superior to the imitations made by the Kyoto Shinmeiryuu(6), and now..."
"ZANMAKEN!"
An enraged young woman sent Kuno flying away.
"Aoyama Motoko, Shinmeiryuu successor, wielder of the ex-cursed sword Youto Hina and law student," Ranma explained. "It's about the fourth time that Aoyama blasted him..."
"Where's the pub?" Mana asked.
Before Akane could say anything, the three of them disappeared.
"It's useless trying to stop them," Akari warned. "They do this every time they meet. But, Kuonji-san, can you tell us about the Four of Asaba?"
"They were the best in my other line of work," Ukyo answered.
"What's your other line of work?" Kasumi asked.
"We're at Todai, nobody will mind you unless you declare that you want to kill the Emperor, so split up." Akane ordered.
"Well, I'm a kunoichi, so my other work besides cooking is killing and doing other dirty work. And the Four of Asaba were the best; the best in the world. Puu was famous for being able to hit a bull’s eye from over a kilometer or hit a target with ricocheting round and infamous for being completely merciless, Merlin was famous for being totally unpredictable and the brains of the team, Fury was infamous for being an unwilling womanizer and able to throw you back everything you used against them, and Sandokan was infamous for his immense strength and being a total moron. If Ran-chan and the jackass are Fury and Sandokan, we never saw their REAL strength."
This last phrase terrified all of them; if they always held back, how much strong they REALLY were? Unable to comprehend how powerful the two rivals really were everyone else seemed content to just stand there, unfortunately for them Ukyo had something else to say.
"They're also apparently involved in the training of the D Team, a group of very powerful and totally insane mercenary," Ukyo added. "It's rumored that their leader once used a 10 megatons hydrogen bomb as anti-personnel weaponry."
"WHAT?!?!?!" everybody shouted.
"That's the rumor. I don't know if it's true, but I met him once, and he's completely insane; a mad genius."
"Is he crazier than me?" Kodachi asked.
"A lo-wait, you know you're crazy?!"
"So much that I scared away every counselor,” Kodachi admitted, “why?"
They preferred not know anything else.
Later that night when Ranma and Ryoga returned, they were, of course, totally drunk. It was weird, but for some reason drunk-Ryoga had a very good sense of direction. Sometimes he makes me wonder about things...
Some day after, at the Mahora Gakuen (Mahora Middle School), a large group of students not only from the Mahora but from every school of the complex gathered in the gymnasium. Somewhere in the mass of humanity was Mana. Beside her a waif of a girl wearing the Mahora uniform appeared. She was Caucasian, and greatly resembled Emma Watson when she starred in Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone, only with longer and lightly curl platinum-blonde hair instead of impossibly unruly brown hair. Her witch hat augmented the resemblance. She looked at the students, making all of them tremble (those who weren’t new to the school at least).
"OK, goons, you were chosen for the Student Security Corps, so you are now in charge of dealing with unruly students and external threats to them!" she declared. "As members of the Corps, you'll answer to me. For the babies who don't know me, I'm Evangeline Anastasia Kathrine McDowell, but you'll call me Madam, Ma'am or My Lady when I'm present. If I'm not present, you can call me Dark Evangeline, The Queen of Night, The Tidings of Evil, The Apostle of Destruction, The Visitation of Woe and other funny nicknames, but NOT Emma Watson Lookalike, NOR Hermione Granger Lookalike NOR Maga Nosferatu NOR something similar to these. If you do you'll quickly become my fresh meat reserve. Those of you in my own class will have the privilege of calling me by my surname, or first name, or Eva; but only during class; your choice. AM-I-CLEAR?!"
The most part of the newbies nodded in fear, something in her voice and her eyes warned that she was incredibly dangerous.
"HEY! WHY SHOULD I TAKE ORDERS FROM YOU?!" Obviously there was always someone who didn't get the message.
"Every single year there's one of them..." Evangeline complained to nobody. "Fine, try to take me down so I'll beat the crap out of you and your pals; and your bloody remains will be testament to the others why everyone should fear me."
A guy emerged from the crow and attacked with a very powerful flying kick. Just before he made contact, Evangeline moved her arm. The guy flew by Evangeline, breaking his nose against a column as he finally came to a stop; his kicking leg still in Evangeline's hand. The cruel girl casually tossed away the leg, and some magical nurse picked it with the guy and carried them away.
"Does someone else think that I can't order you around?" Evangeline asked. Nobody replied. "Good. Everybody dismissed. Everybody but Tatsumiya."
While everybody ran away, Mana gulped and went to talk to her new dreaded boss, silently cursing the moment when she decided to hide at Mahora.
"Yes, Ma'am?" Mana asked.
"Get a counselor," Evangeline ordered.
"What?"
"You're depressed and will neglect your training, I can tell with a glance. I could counsel you by myself, but I don't have the time. So, get counseling, I don't want a depressed weakling in the Corps."
"My greatest asset is my aim, and I'm totally unable to miss."
"So, shoot the headmaster's beard from here. Now!"
Mana pulled out her Hecate II, got a look with her Demon Eyes and shot against a building.
A few seconds after, Evangeline's cell rang with a diabolical laugh.
"What do you want?" Evangeline shouted into her cell phone. Then her face puzzled. "Really?! No need to worry. ... No need to worry, I was testing the aim of a newbie; Tatsumiya Mana! Is someone there wounded? ... Oh. Well, now we'll arrive."
"What's happened?" Mana asked with a smirk.
"You managed to cut the headmaster's beard, so I'll won’t force you to get see counselor." Evangeline said. "But there're two wounded."
"Really?"
"The new P.E. teacher got hit in her buttcheek from a splinter when the bullet hit a wall near her. She believed that her fiancé pinched her so she punched him; hard."
"Oh."
"But try to get counseling, you need it. Also, sign up for the right club so that you'll train at least with your aim without worrying for the non-magical people. Maybe the Biathlon Club, the Military Club(7) or the Skeet Shooting Club."
"I joined the Biathlon Club. They have also a cute member."
"Your choice."
Having come to an agreement the two girls went to the main gymnasium, where the headmaster was getting ready to make his speech. Also, he announced that amongst the new professors they had acquired Tendo Akane, who went with Ranma. Mana smiled. Being able to see Ranma again was something that she could really look forward to being able to spend more time with one of the other Four Asaba. But another student frowned.
"Why are they here? They should be at the other side of the country!" Qiao Ling-Cheng, the time-traveller, though. "Maybe I should check that..."


Omake: Birth of a Monster (from a true history)


1995, Cremona, Italian Republic.
"Can you repeat me why we are here, Kaworu?" Saotome Ranma asked.
"During job it's Merlin. And we are here to repay for an help." Kaworu A.K.A. Merlin replied. "A retired Guardia di Finanza(8) NCO discovered a supply of magical rounds for Puu but let it pass, and now he want something from us."
"Exactly what he want?" Ryoga asked.
"He has an irritable and mischievous grandson who needs some training in ability and mind." Mana answered. "I hope that he won't be too stupid and annoying, we are not even getting paid..."
"He's eight, he won't be too intelligent or annoying." Ranma declared.
"He lives here, in this street." Kaworu told them. "In the house that those kids are insulting calling 'lesbian' the inhabitants. Oh, the kids are going away, let's go."
BANG!
"What was that?!" Ryoga exclaimed.
"Relax, it was only a firework." Mana said.
At that point I, the grandson of the retired NCO appeared at a window with a toy carbine and shouted: "La prossima volta mirerò a voi!"
"OMMAMMA!!!" the kids exclaimed while escaping.
"What's happened?" Mana asked.
"Uh... The grandson of the NCO just used a firework and a toy carbine to scare away the offending kids..." Kaworu said. "He's intelligent..."
"And mischievous..."
"I have a bad feeling about this..." Ranma said.

1999, near Ankara, Republic of Turkey.
The Four of Asaba were reunited and hired by Tetrachordones Campanulae(9) for destroying a terrorist cell. For good, Tetracordones Campanulae hired the D-Team, a 7-men mercenary team from Italy leaded by me. Theorically it would be an easy mission. Well, did you know that Fate Averruncus was sorta cloned(10), was very difficult to kill and was involved? Between he, our numerical inferiority (we were 12, they were at least 200. I should ask DN about this, she normally keep the count) and the fact that Fate was always with some skilled people, we were having a very bad time.
In that moment Mana was shooting a pair of enemy mages when Fate, after absorbing a kick from D4 (I saw him destroy a skyscraper with a kick when he was eight, and during that mission at the time he was eleven) and trowing him away, attacked her at the back. Kaworu took the hit for her in his chest. Then I realized that we were about to be killed and attacked him with my strongest weapon. I obliterated a Fate Averruncus, and every enemy at the other side of him, with that, then, while my team took cover, DN tried to save Kaworu and everybody else was staring shocked, D6 and I used the machine guns to complete the work.
"What was that?" Kaworu asked just after DN admitted that she wasn't able to save him.
"A M29 launcher with a tactical shaped charge nuclear weapon based on the M-388 Davy Crockett." I replied. "Yes, I used an half-kiloton nuclear weapon as anti-personnel weapon. Now I have to understand how Fate Averruncus was alive and younger after being killed by the Thousand Master years ago..." Yeah, I know that Nagi Springfield didn't killed the first Fate but simply defeated him just before he was killed, but at the time I didn't know...
"Mana..." Kaworu called. "Live happy, live free, and protect the world from the monster we created..."
I prefer be called Angel of Death.


footnotes
(1)If you are a Ken Akamatsu fan, you'll recognize the name of the university that the majority of Love Hina characters wanted to enroll. It's the premier university of Japan, and one of the best (if not THE best) in all Asia.
(2)I know, in the canon Ranma is an only child. But here he has a sister, never seen because she normally resides away from home. Ranma met her for the first time just after the failed marriage at the end of the manga (she arrived during the ruse, but waited outside until the fiancee brigade stopped). She idolizes her big brother for surviving their father, but greatly dislike their (in her own words) 'useless brain-damaging Panda dad' for being a jerk and is not exactly fond of Akane for attacking her brother with almost no reason. Personality wise, she is crazy almost like Kodachi and pervert like Happosai, but she knows it and is more controlled (she has rarely crazyness outburst and is not a peeper or a pantie thief).
(3)Mensa International is the oldest, largest and best known high-IQ society in the world, open to everybody who scored 132 or higher in the Stanford-Binet IQ test or 148 or higher in the Cattell test, I.E. the 2% of mankind with the highest IQ. Mensan know to me striked me for being a bit strange and often with a sick sense of humor (Alfred George Hinds, before enrolling Mensa, was arrested but broke out of three maximum-security prisons (humiliating and locking two jailers in a toiled during his second breaking out), obtained a full pardon, gained a lot of money from interviews and his biography after his third evasion and before being arrested again and, while still in prison, from his arresting officer with a lawsuit, and after being pardoned locked six kidnappers in the room they wanted to lock him in; Scott Adams is the comic artist who write and draw the infamous Dilbert, and if you know this comic you know that Adams is a cynic with a sense of humour sicker than mine), and as such in this fanfic I'll represent most Mensans as crazy in their own ways, while less flamboyant than Kodachi.
(4)If you look Mana Tatsumiya, you'll see that the only difference between her and Sailor Pluto (nicknamed Puu by Chibiusa) are the eyes (golden vs bloody red) and the hairstyle (bangs vs bun). For the rest, they could be twins. Ranma's, Ryoga and now late Mana's fiancee's nicknames follow the theme of famous fictional character similar to them: Ranma's name means 'wild horse' (I remember that in a fanfic a demon referred to him as 'The Wild Horse'), so he's linked to the stallion protagonist of Fury; Ryoga has a light tiger theme in his appearance, so he's linked to Sandokan, protagonist of various novels of Emilio Salgari and with a prominent tiger theme (he's nicknamed Tiger of Malaysia, his strenght is ofter paragonated to the one of a tiger and he was represented as able to fight a tiger with his bare hands, his flag show one or three tiger's heads on a red field, other); the late unnamed Mana's fiancee was a western-style mage, so he's linked to the most famous one.
(5)Asaba was a city near Mount Fuji in Shizuoka Prefecture. On April 1st, 2005, Asaba merged into the city of Fukuroi.
(6)The Shinmeiryuu, literally 'God's Cry School', is a Kyoto-based school of sword users in Ken Akamatsu works Love Hina and Negima! Magister Negi Magi. It's members are literally one-man army, able to destroy big building and skyscraper-sized demons. The actual successor of the Shinmeiryuu is Aoyama Motoko, who studies law at the Todai. The Shinmeiryuu attack used here is Zanmaken (Evil Cutting Sword), an attack meant to kill demons.
(7)A school club in the Mahora. To this date, they're the craziest club in the entire crazy campus, having them went so far to aquire various fully functional military vehicles (amongst them a Mil Mi-24 helicopter gunship (Russians nicknamed it 'Flying Tank' for its firepower. Afghan Mujahideen, who faced it in combat, called it 'Satan's Chariot') and a M1 Abrams main battle tank), effectively breaking Japanese laws on self-defence forces. That's why Evangeline suggested it, nobody will note a member of the Military Club with a weapon.
(8)Literally 'Financial Guard', it's an Italian gendarmerie specialized in financial and economical services under the authority of Ministero dell'Economia e delle Finanze (Minister of Economy and Finances).
(9)Literally 'Four Tones Little Bells'. Mana talked about this magical non-governmental organization in the 86th Hour as an organization working to help people in need. Mana and her partner worked for Tetrachordones Campanulae until the death of Mana's partner, and traveled in Afghanistan, China, Middle East, Ulster and other war zones.
(10)Fate Averruncus, the archnemesis of Negi Springfield first appeared in the Kyoto Arc of Negima!, is in fact a clone. In a recent chapter he was shown alive and older 15-20 years before the series only to be killed by his own employer. Also, the real name of the actual Fate is revealed to be Tertium, 'the third' in Latin. He may be a sort of clone or puppet (Evangeline's guess).

I'v got certified the exam HP0-J21 It is very pleasing. It was a bit of a surprise in my life, to be honest.